Categories

Every day, judges up and down the country sentence people on a wide variety of offences ranging from the trivial to the gravest of crimes. Most of these sentencing exercises pass unnoticed by all but the people directly involved, but from ...

Family Trusts have been particularly significant since 1993. Anecdotally, it would seem that there are in excess of half a million Family Trusts in New Zealand currently. That is significantly more, per head of population, than for almost every other country. ...

The “ordinary course of business” exemption.When buying or leasing valuable goods it is important to check that they are not subject to a security interest. Otherwise, the secured party is able to use its security interest to call in the goods ...

In commercial lease agreements, rent review clauses provide for how annual rent payable is determined.In addition to providing what the review is based on (i.e. either the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or market rent), many commercial leases provide that the rent ...

A warning for Property Investors.In 2015, the government introduced the “bright-line test”, a method which attempts to tighten the property investment rules. The bright-line test states that (subject to exemptions) any gain from disposing of residential land within two years of ...

Anti-money laundering & countering financing of terrorism.As anyone who has attempted to open a bank account or invested funds through an investment manager in recent years will attest, such activities are no longer the relatively straightforward exercise that they used to ...

The survivor needs to consider the optionsPart 8 of the Property (Relationships) Act 1976 (“the Act”) deals with the division of property where a marriage or de facto relationship ends because one of the parties has died. The surviving spouse or ...

A lifestyle choice NOT a financial investmentRetirement Villages (“villages”) tend to be resort-like gated communities of older people usually over 70 years; approximately 12% of all over 75 year olds live in a village.Once settled, I have yet to meet a ...

The problems you leave for your family to deal withWhen a person passes away without a Will, the Administration Act 1969 (“the Act”) sets out how the Estate of the deceased will be distributed.Firstly, the family need to determine the value ...

Equal sharing repugnant to justiceThe majority of our clients are already aware that where a marriage/de facto relationship of long duration comes to an end, relationship property is divided equally between the former spouses/partners. This “equal sharing rule” reflects key principles ...